# SpaceX Starship test flight fails to catch rocket stages

> SpaceX's 15th Starship test flight launched Friday but failed to recover either stage, with the booster exploding in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Title: SpaceX Starship test flight fails to catch rocket stages
- Summary: SpaceX's 15th Starship test flight launched Friday but failed to recover either stage, with the booster exploding in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Keywords: spacex, starship, test flight, rocket recovery, starlink, elon musk, starshield, ukraine, CNBC
- Source: CNBC — https://cnbc.com/2026/11/13/spacex-launches-starship-in-key-test-flight-of-massive-rocket.html
- Author: Lora Kolodny
- Published: 2026-11-13T22:50:16+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: spacex, starship, test flight, rocket recovery, starlink, elon musk, starshield, ukraine, business, finance
## Starship Flight 15 launches and fails
SpaceX launched its fifteenth Starship test flight on Friday at four forty-seven pm local time from South Texas. The company failed to recover both rocket stages.
## Booster explodes in the Gulf
SpaceX aborted plans to catch the booster and diverted it to splash into the Gulf of Mexico, where it burst into flames. This was the first attempt to catch both stages.
## Upper stage continues to orbit
The upper stage continued its trajectory into orbit after the booster failed. The rocket is expected to fly around the Earth fourteen times in total before landing Saturday.
## Starship critical for Moon and Mars
Starship's success is critical to SpaceX's ambitions to lift cargo and people to the Moon and Mars. In the near term, SpaceX needs to send more satellites into orbit to expand Starlink.
## Starlink constellation grows rapidly
SpaceX's constellation already includes over eleven thousand active satellites in low Earth orbit. One Starship rocket can carry up to sixty Starlink v three satellites, about twenty times Falcon nine capacity.
## Ukraine criticises Starshield limits
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said military forces experienced limits on Starshield without warning, harming their ability to defend against Russia's ongoing aerial attacks. Some U.S. senators have condemned the restrictions.
## Key takeaway

SpaceX's Starship test flight on November thirteenth failed to recover both rocket stages, though the upper stage continued to orbit as planned.